


i won't run from this electric loving

by arashiyama (harukatenoh)



Series: Arashiyama Jun Birthday Countdown 2018 [3]
Category: World Trigger
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Bad Flirting, M/M, surprisingly little flower symbolism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-06-16 02:25:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15426999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harukatenoh/pseuds/arashiyama
Summary: Over the summer, Jin and Tachikawa notice the cute boy working at their local flower shop, and decide to do something about it. There's no I in team, but there is in competition. Two of them.





	i won't run from this electric loving

**Author's Note:**

> arashiyama bday countdown day three: poly shenanigans. tachijin are.......... so dumb.
> 
> work title from on your way down by the jungle giants

“Good morning, Arashiyama!” is called cheerfully despite the early morning. Jun is turned around and tending to a pot of petunias on his shelf, but he knew who it was as soon as the door opened.

When he turns around and is met with the grinning face of Jin Yuuichi, he’s proven correct. It’s not that hard to guess, considering that Jin has been dropping by the store every morning for the past month, but it still brings a small sense of victory to Jun.

“Good morning, Jin,” Jun greets back warmly, returning to his position behind the counter and brushing some dirt off his apron as he does. “Are you looking to buy something today?”

Jin ponders over this for a while, his eyes drifting over the displays of flowers and other plants that were set up in the store, before shaking his head.

“The only person I want to buy flowers for already has enough of them, I do believe,” Jin says. It’s accompanied by a smirk in Jun’s direction and Jun rolls his eyes, trying to avoid the imminent blush forming on his face.

“Flatterer,” he teases, the effect somewhat ruined by the fact he can’t meet Jin’s eyes. Jin laughs, sounding very pleased with himself, and Jun kind of wants to either kick him out of the store or melt into a puddle on the floor.

It’s been a month of this routine: Jun opening his grandmother’s flower shop in the morning and Jin popping in before… classes? Work? Jun barely knew. They would chat for a while; Jin would sometimes buy things and almost always flirt, and every time he had to leave it would feel too soon to Jun.

It’s no different this time, and they spend a while talking. Jin tells Jun about his annoying roommate, who won’t stop stealing his stash of bonchi crackers, and Jun takes Jin through the breeding process for roses. It’s just _easy_ between them, and Jun never gets tired of hearing Jin talk and never runs out of things to say either. For somebody Jun doesn’t know outside of the thirty-minute meetings they have every day, Jun finds it so easy to trust Jin.

After Jin has finished quizzing Jun on the new batch of seedlings they just had delivered, he announces that he has to leave. Jun feels disappointed already as Jin walks towards the exit, and it’s on pure impulse that he calls out just before Jin is out of the door.

“Jin, wait!”

Jin pauses and turns back, a questioning look on his face.

Jun looks down at the counter, trying desperately to combat the blush on his face as he gently cuts off a flower from one of the plants in front of him. Cradling it in his hands, he walks over to Jin while determinedly keeping his gaze on the ground.

When he’s standing in front of Jin, Jun manages to peek at his face. His expression is slack and wondering, which gives Jun the extra courage to gently tuck the flower into Jin’s shirt pocket.

Jun dares to look up again, and he can’t tell whether his face or Jin’s is burning more. He says “See you?”, trying not to sound too hopeful. It doesn’t matter anyway, because Jin has been showing up religiously for the past month and he probably isn’t stopping anytime soon.

Jin just nods rapidly, his gaze cycling between the flower at his chest and Jun. He mutters a goodbye and then he’s leaving the store with jerky motions, something that would probably discourage Jun if the flustered look about Jin wasn’t so obvious.

Jun puts his face in his hands and groans as soon as the door is completely shut, wondering how he’s supposed to go about his day now.

* * *

 

Distracted as he is from the events of the morning, it slips his mind that he should be expecting another regular to drop in until it actually happens. In the evening, a little while before Jun closes the store, the bell over the door rings to signal another customer.

Jun looks up to see Tachikawa walking in, an easy smile on his face and a plastic bag hanging from his fingers. With his unoccupied hand, he waves at Jun, who waves back with a smile.

“Evening, Tachikawa-san,” he greets warmly.

Tachikawa, as always, waves off the greeting with a hand. “You can drop the honorific, Arashiyama,” he tells Jun with a pout, like he’s told Jun several times before. Jun smiles at that, because he mostly does it now to get that reaction out of Tachikawa.

“Are you interested in buying something?” Jun asks, because he _is_ running a business. Tachikawa shakes his head, stepping up to the counter to place down the plastic bag and pushing it over to Jun.

“Not this time,” Tachikawa says, “but I do have an offer for you,”

He says this with a wink and a roguish smile, and it’s ridiculously cheesy but Jun blushes anyway, ducking his head down to try and make it less obvious.

“Share these gyoza with me?” Tachikawa asks, the smugness in his voice poorly masked.

Jun nods, trying to stifle his grin as he met Tachikawa’s eyes. He looks at the clock and decides it’s close enough to closing time for him to call it a day and walks over to flip the sign to _closed_. Tachikawa doesn’t do this often, but it’s happened enough that Tachikawa knows where to pull two stools out from under the shelves so they can sit at the counter and eat together.

It feels a little strange, having two regulars at Jun’s store who are both so… _obvious_ in their intentions, and the feeling always doubles on the few times they come in on the same day. Of course, never at the same time; they seem to have totally different schedules, which that makes it a little easier for Jun at least. Still, it’s not like he’s ever committed to anything, and as far as he’s aware the other two are just having fun and keeping it casual, which he can work with.

Jun’s main tactic for things is to grin and bear them, not thinking too hard about them, so he applies it to this as well. He and Tachikawa chat for a while, and Tachikawa’s gyoza are delicious—Jun will have to ask where he got them—and his company is more than wonderful. He’s dynamic and never boring and Jun is constantly trying to keep up with him, and it’s _fun._ Tachikawa talks and acts and feels like he’s constantly taking on the world and Jun is so easily caught up in it all.

Like before, when the sun starts to sink and they’ve run out of food and time, it feels like it’s still too soon.

Jun cleans up the remains of their dinner and says “Thank you for the meal, Tachikawa,”. It’s hard to miss how Tachikawa visibly brightens at the lack of honorific on his name and it’s ridiculously endearing, how openly Tachikawa gapes at Jun afterwards.

“Of course!” Tachikawa says brightly. He continues with “You can repay me the favour later,”, his voice pitched a little lower than usual. Jun feels his face start to heat up at the comment and he’s bewildered at how Tachikawa can say such cheesy stuff so _easily,_ when he’s suffering from merely hearing it directed at him.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Jun replies as he steps back around the counter to put the plastic bag in the bin underneath it. When he looks up again, Tachikawa hasn’t left yet; he’s still standing in front of the counter actually, and Jun thinks there might be an expectant look on his face.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jun catches sight of the plant he cut the flower from for Jin earlier today, and he figures why not.

“Stay there,” he instructs Tachikawa as he snips off the stalk. Walking back around the counter, he can clearly feel Tachikawa’s wide-eyed gaze on him as Jun steps up to him. Tachikawa doesn’t have a pocket in his shirt, and Jun has to summon the extra confidence—from god knows where—to be brazen enough to tuck the flower behind his ear.

“T-there we go,” Jun stutters, his face flaming red as he looks up at Tachikawa. At least Tachikawa looks similarly embarrassed, his hand hovering over his ear as if he isn’t sure he can touch it.

“I—um,” Tachikawa says, “I’ll… see you,”

Jun smiles despite his embarrassment, because a Tachikawa taken off guard is a cute Tachikawa. “See you,” he confirms, and then Tachikawa is walking out of the shop with haste, the tips of his ears still red.

Jun closes for good then, making sure that no more cute boys can come and flirt with him. His heart has taken all of the embarrassment it can for the week, probably, and he trails back up to the apartment on top of the flower store with a giddy smile on his face.

* * *

 

This routine continues; on the days that Jin doesn’t drop in, Tachikawa will show up, and it’s almost got Jun convinced they’re running on a schedule somehow. He never expected that his summer working at his grandmother’s shop would yield such fruit, but he spends his early mornings looking forward to Jin’s arrival, and then his evenings happy from Tachikawa’s appearance.

The two, over the course of the summer, have become even more obvious in their flirting. It’s… well, it’s _nice,_ to get that kind of attention, but Jun still feels like he’s leading them both on. Worse still that if it really comes down to it, he isn’t sure that he could choose between them either.

The summer is drawing to a close one evening, past closing time, when Jun is finishing off the bookkeeping for the store before closing up properly. It’s kind of relaxing, to just tap away at the calculator and record numbers, and he gets so into it that he doesn’t notice the figure approaching the store. The bell rings and he jumps and drops his pen; he swears he remembers switching the sign from _open_ to _closed,_ but maybe not?

“Sorry,” he says, leaning down to pick up his pen, “we aren’t open right now!”

“Ah, yeah, I know, I just wanted to talk,” a familiar voice says, and Jun is shooting up so fast that he knocks his head on the counter as he does.

The thud of contact is accompanied by a hissed “Fuck,”, and when Jun stands up straight with his hands holding the back of his head, Jin is clearly trying not to laugh.

Jun hasn’t seen Jin nor Tachikawa for the past few days. He kind of figured that maybe it was for the best, the natural end for whatever they had going on, but that didn’t stop it from stinging a little. He missed them, he realized. And maybe… maybe it’s selfish of him, to want both of them as a presence in his life, but he can’t get used to not having them around anymore.

“Hi,” he says with a wince.

“Hi,” Jin replies, looking amused and fond and adoring. The look makes Jun forget a little about his smarting head—he’ll probably end up with a bruise—and he has to smile back at Jin.

“Long time no see,” Jun says, hoping for an explanation.

Jin makes a face; it’s a cross between a grimace and a pout and it’s somehow endearing, and shrugs. “Sorry, I had… I had things to figure out,”

That doesn’t tell Jun anything, but Jun is happy enough to see him again that he doesn’t press it. In the light of the setting sun, Jin is beautiful, cast in orange light and looking gilded with the colour. Jun thinks that he could fall in love, with Jin looking like this. And maybe he won’t be able to have both of the people his heart longs for, but having one would be far more than enough.

Jin says, “I wanted to ask you if…” and Jun hangs onto his every word.

Before Jin can continue, the door slams open.

“You _bastard,_ ” Tachikawa hisses from where he’s standing in the doorway, and Jun’s blood runs cold.

This is it. This is what he gets for leading on two amazing lovely wonderful men. It all ends in this confrontation and a mere few seconds ago he might’ve been able to have at least one but now, now he’s definitely lost them both. His stomach sinks with the realization and god, Tachikawa looks _livid,_ he’s really fucked it up this time—

Jin rolls his eyes and turns to Tachikawa, poking out his tongue.

“Too bad for you, babe!” Jin says cheerfully, walking closer towards Jun.

Jun doesn’t move, because he’s not exactly sure of his reality right now. The major part of him tells him he should be doing damage control, trying to fix the situation as best as he can to make everybody happy, but then Jin is next to him and grabbing his hand and _boy,_ he is confused.

“Yuuichi, babe, you’re a dirty _cheat,_ ” Tachikawa snipes right back, adopting the same faux-cheerful tone that Jin was using earlier.

It occurs to Jun that they’re calling each other by first name and also _babe._

“Wait, what?”

They both look at him. Their smiles, which were belligerent a mere few seconds ago, both become so fond that Jun feels himself start to blush under their gazes. He can’t let himself get distracted by that though, and he tugs his hand out of Jin’s and steps away from them both, putting up his hands.

“Sorry, I’m… I’m not exactly sure what’s going on here?” He means it to come out a little more confident, but he is really lost.

Jin, with a soft laugh, steps over towards Tachikawa. They’re both still looking at Jun with that loving expression and it kind of makes Jun want to melt, but also, _what the fuck._

“Arashiyama Jun,” Jin starts, “This is my boyfriend, Tachikawa Kei,”

Jun takes that in. He looks over at Tachikawa, who is nodding in confirmation.

He blinks, and very warily, he says “Okay,”

There’s a pause.

Jun blurts out, before he can think better of it, “So this entire time has been you two trying to…”

Jin pokes Tachikawa in the side, muttering “I told you he’d get it!” cheerfully. Tachikawa scowls and elbows Jin back, and the interaction speaks of an ease with each other built over a long time. The interaction is also really cute.

Jin gestures between him and Tachikawa, and then to Jun, and says “We both noticed you when you started working here at the start of summer, but we—mostly Kei—” and that comment earns him another elbow from Tachikawa, “didn’t want to overwhelm you, so we approached you separately,”

Tachikawa adds on to that with “And… along the way, it became a bit of a competition, to see who you’d end up liking more,” and Jun almost laughs at that, because it’s so typical for the two of them to turn that into a competition.

He thinks it over, while Jin and Tachikawa stare at him expectantly, and he thinks that this might be the best outcome he could’ve possibly hoped for. He smiles at both of them, and it’s ridiculous and also cute how they both brighten in response.

“Do you have an answer?” Jin asks.

Jun replies “Answer to what?”, a coy smile playing at his features.

Jin grins at that and says “Will you go out with us?” at the exact same time Tachikawa says “Who did you like more?”

Jun bursts out laughing. Jin turns to Tachikawa and matter-of-factly tells him “We’re breaking up,”

Tachikawa, completely unaffected, says “But you want to know, right?”

Jin rolls his eyes, but he’s smiling. “Not as much as I want to know if he’s going to date us, babe,”

At that, Tachikawa shrugs, turning back to Jun who can’t stop the full force of his grin. Tachikawa, with a smirk, says “I think that answer’s pretty obvious,” and _damn him,_ he’s totally right.

“Yes,” Jun says when he catches his breath again, “I will go out with you,”

He then levels a gaze at Tachikawa, whose mouth was already opening to reply, and says “And I will _not_ answer your other question,”

Jin hums sympathetically. “You don’t want to tell Kei that you like me more when he’s the one who wants to know so badly, I understand. How generous, Arashiyama,”

Tachikawa shrieks in protest and Jin is grinning and Jun is laughing and so very in love.

Eventually, they all calm down enough to gravitate a little more towards each other, and it’s Jun who reaches out for the other two first to pull them close. As he stands, Jin and Tachikawa’s arms wrapped around him, he feels Tachikawa lean closer to his ears and whisper “Quick, tell me now, who did you actually like more?”

Jun snorts, feeling the way Tachikawa was attempting to tickle Jin while hugging him at the same time, thinking that his decision to work at this flower shop for the summer was his best one ever.

**Author's Note:**

> all of my poly fics have the format of [two characters are an established couple and then seduce the third into joining] and i think that really reflects my ideal relationship.
> 
> one day i will write something serious for this ship but today is Not that day
> 
> if you liked this fic, please consider donating to my ko-fi! it's linked in [my carrd](http://arashiyama.carrd.co) \- thank you so much if you do!


End file.
